Dharini Upadhyaya, CEO Furtados School of Music, educates about Do’s and Don’ts of online learning
Since the Corona outbreak, normal ways of education that is going to schools and colleges has become a challenge. The unprecedented time has resulted in schools to shut down, across the globe. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom, in their home right now. But this crisis shall not stop the learning and studies. Schools, colleges, and institutes have started looking out for the ways to continue the education. The lockdown has accelerated the adoption of digital technology or online learning. Online learning has become the new normal and has widely been accepted across students and professionals.
Online education has now cornered the idea of campus learning as it has provided with the ease of flexibility and allows a person tolearn at your own pace. As we all know pictorial learning has always been the best way of learning. Online material has resulted in students retaining 25-60% more material as compared to only 8-10% in a classroom. Online learning even gives the flexibility to learn at your own pace by re-reading, skipping, going back, and accelerating through concepts. Online education system gives the flexibility to grab and mould the means of education and get the maximum amount of outcomes through it.
One can make the most through online learning by prioritizing subjects, dwelling on applicability with more assignment based work and lower stress levels due to reduced travel time. Online learning enables seamless access to study material, notes and presentations which can help recap at your own time. Formative assessments have become so much easier with tools that make this fun and engaging for all learners. These tools are a great help for students who are usually shy in nature and are unable to clear their doubts in front of the whole class.
The Do’s of Online Learning : Be Prepared – Be as prepared with your topic in online session as you would be while entering the physical classroom. Keeping a regular check on the emails, thoroughly going through the syllabus and having a hold on the study material is very necessary for one to understand what’s been taught in the online learning class. Commit time to your course –The way institution learning’s follow a proper day plan and time table for each subject to equally be emphasized on, similarly there is a need to commit dedicated time for any course you opt for along with a set time-table. Even though you have the flexibility and comfort of attending classes from home, don’t let this comfort not make you any lazy in attending classes. Be responsive –It’s very important for one to always have curiosity in their heads, which results in raising doubts. There will be times when you might get the wrong idea about what the other person said, so it’s very important to ask questions, be vocal with your doubts and be responsive to the questions being asked in the online session. Keen participation will lead you to excel in the subject and have a better understanding of the topic.
The DONT’s of Online Learning : Don’t procrastinate –Procrastinating can be considered as one of the deadly sins of online learning.Making an effort will always be appreciated; procrastinating might lead you to be lagging behind in the race of online learning. It’s always necessary to set goals for assignments, discuss current topics, stay up to date with readings and what’s happening around in order to have a clear understanding of the subject. Don’t be hesitant to reach out for help – Usually children feel hesitant while asking questions, resulting in assuming wrong information on certain things. So it’s always important to raise your doubts, ask questions, seek for help in case you think you are facing difficulty on a certain topic and get things cleared in your heads. Ignore additional online resources –Don’t get distracted by other online resources or websites while you are participating in your online class or lecture. Block pop-ups and make sure you turn off notifications while you’re logged on and in class. It’s easy to always be constantly surfing the internet, but you’ll want to pay attention and not stray from the content your professor or instructor is providing you.
Online learning is a fast-paced and dynamic way to accelerate your learning and will help you achieve your goals, both academically and personally.To get the most out of online learning, make sure you develop new knowledge and skills in a way that you can retain, apply repeatedly, and adapt new contexts while learning.